Natural building construction uses locally obtained and renewable materials, to produce homes and buildings that are visually unique and healthy to live in, while striving to keep energy consumption and its’ associated emissions as low as possible. As a way of promoting natural building, the Ontario Natural Building Coalition coordinates an annual Natural Homes Tour -- formerly called the Ontario Straw Bale Homes Tour. This year’s tour took place on Sunday October 6th ,2013 . Scroll down for a brief report on this years tour.....
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Visit our Natural Building Gallery to see houses built out of straw, wood & earth!
A total of thirty-nine homes and buildings took part in our 2013 annual tour; five in the Gatineau-Wakefield region of west Quebec, the remaining in Southern, Central and Eastern Ontario. In addition to a great selection of beautiful straw bale homes, some interesting additions to this years’ tour were two rammed earth homes, a cottage made from a re-purposed shipping container and a Peterborough home aptly named, ‘Canada’s Greenest Home’.
Many of the homes were models of innovation and energy efficiency and featured living roofs, natural clay wall finishes, rainwater catchment systems, grey water systems, composting toilets, while others incorporated solar and wind electrical systems, high efficiency wood burning appliances, solar domestic hot water systems, as well as a variety of other interesting green technologies.
The Ontario Natural Building Coalition would like to thank all the volunteer homeowners who graciously opened their doors and welcomed tour-goers. The annual tour would not be possible without them!
For those of you who missed this year’s tour, mark your calendars for next year, and keep an eye on our website for the date!
Click here for an article about one of the homes on our recent tour.
